Taylormade Rac LT Irons Review – Are They Forgiving for High Handicappers?

Taylormade Rac LT Irons Review – Are They Forgiving for High Handicappers?

“The Taylormade Rac LT irons came out in 2002 before the era of enormous game improvement irons.”

I’ll start this review by giving you my initial reaction to these irons. As soon as I got them in for testing, the only adjective I could think of was “refreshing.” It was refreshing to see a set of game improvement irons (especially from Taylormade) that wasn’t humongous.

I had really high hopes for the Taylormade Rac LT irons. They aren’t butter knives; but they certainly aren’t shovels either. They have a profile that’s slightly on the compact side with minimal offset. Still, I know that the Taylormade Rac LT irons were designed to be forgiving. Could these irons live up to their appearance and deliver a healthy mix of forgiveness and playability? Read on to find out.

Are the Taylormade Rac LT Irons Still Good?

“Spoiler alert: yes. The Taylormade Rac LT irons are really an anomaly as they seem to serve the needs of mid and high handicappers.”

The Taylormade Rac LTs are semi cavity back irons. The cavity isn’t very deep and neither is the undercut it creates. Still, a lot of weight savings from the thin face have been moved to the perimeter so that mis-hits aren’t so punishing. And with the mild cavity back, you still get pretty good MOI and power behind the shots that don’t find face-center.

Another interesting thing about these irons is that they have a higher CG than modern game improvement irons. The CG is placed forward and higher in the club head to help mute spin. This serves two purposes. Firstly, it improves distance for faster swing speed players. The lower spin rates in the long irons will usually equal longer carry since there is less spin resistance in the air.

Secondly, it helps keep your mis-hits under control. With less spin, the ball can’t veer too far to the left or right – unless you’re hitting hosel rockets or something. During my testing, I was putting these irons through their paces. I was intentionally using the whole face and never saw off-line divergence greater than 13 yards.

My distance was about half an iron further than my gamers. And with the minimal offset, I was able to work the ball to a pretty high degree. The Taylormade Rac LT irons play smooth through the turf as well. They feature tour-cambered soles which make it much easier to make solid contact on tight lies.

Are the Taylormade Rac LT Irons Forgiving for High Handicappers?

“I definitely think these irons would work for high handicappers.”

The higher CG and minimal offset may take some getting used to if you’re used to modern GI irons; but the adjustment shouldn’t take too long or be too taxing. Other than that, I can’t imagine high handicappers would have any serious issues with the Taylormade Rac LT irons.

The face flexion seems to stay high even when you miss the sweet spot so it gives you good distance on less than perfect shots. And despite the lack of a really deep undercut and fat soles, the Taylormade Rac LT irons have weak lofts so high handicappers should have no problem punching the ball high up in the air. You can see the exact lofts in the table below but for now, I’ll just say that the 9-iron is 43°.

When you pair low spin with high launch, you get a set of irons that is really beneficial for high handicappers. Plus, the Taylormade Rac LT will help you get used to smaller irons for when you’re ready to upgrade.